Lawrence Frank Insists Detroit Pistons Can Win With Balance

By John Raffel

Paul Abell-US PRESSWIRE

Detroit Pistons coach Lawrence Frank insists he’s not looking for any one or two of his players to light up the scoreboard for his team this season.

That’s despite the fact his team could have used a hot hand several times last season. But Frank insists he’s still looking for equal distribution and won’t be putting pressure on players like Brandon Knight, Greg Monroe or Tayshaun Prince to have that unstoppable shooting touch occasionally this season.

Last season, Frank demonstrated that he focuses just as much on assists as he does on scoring.

“That is the way that we want to play. I think that the games, at least from a coaching and a playing standpoint, when everyone is involved there is just a deeper seated commitment opposed to just watching one guy play and four guys standing,” he said. “I was glad to see our assist total. Turnovers need to be cut down, especially the turnovers that directly relate to leading to their points.”

The Pistons last season had stretches of offensive struggles that led to losses and, as a result, absence from playoff contention.

“I think what it was is we had two four minute stretches where we did not score,” Frank said after one game in which the team struggled heavily. “We got stops, but could not score a point. A couple different reasons, one is at times we had some good shots, at other times we took some quick shots, other times we did not move the ball or move bodies as well as we needed to.

“So a combination of all three of those things and just not taking advantage of when we finally did get stops of being advantageous whether it’s on the break, whether it’s with ball movement in terms of our early attack. At times we looked punch-drunk out there, just running into each other, not great rhythm.”

Frank is counting on this year’s team to be far more aggressive going to the hoop.

“You look at the free throws in terms of our inability to get into the paint vs. their ability to get into the paint,” Frank said, pointing to another Pistons struggle. “So there was a big difference there.”

Ben Gordon is gone so the Pistons will lack his occasional power surge. But Will Bynum is expected to join Knight, Prince, Monroe and others in picking up the slack in a big way.